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Much fuss has been made over the fact that EA has now vowed to include some form of microtransactions in all their new titles from here on out. The concept is nothing new, mobile games and free to play titles have been using microtransactions for a while now as a main source of revenue, but the fact that the idea is being brought to full-fledged $60 titles has ruffled a few feathers.

We'll get to see the most prominent example of this new push with the upcoming Dead Space 3, and now we have a full list of what exactly players can purchase with real world money from the in-game store.

Bot Capacity Upgrade $4.99

Bot Personality Pack $4.99

First Contact Pack Free

Marauder Pack $4.99

Sharpshooter Pack $4.99

Tundra Recon Pack $4.99

Witness the Truth Pack $4.99

Bot Accelerator $4.99

Epic Weapon & Resource Pack $2.99

Online Pass $9.99

Ultra Weapon & Resource Pack $1.99

Resource Pack $0.99

If you add up the majority of the packs you can buy, a player could easily spend an additional $40 on the game, $50 if they needed an online pass, which hardly seems like a "microtransaction" at all.

Of course it's not required that the player purchase these items, that would be a huge overreach. As such, it's not necessary to chastise EA for this decision, but it should be recognized as what it is: an experiment.

As annoying as it is that a company feels like they have the right to charge an extra $50 for content in an already $60 game, they do in fact, have that right. But if we want to see the practice fade away, all players have to do collectively is not buy the packages. If it's demonstrated that microtransactions don't work in already pricey games, then we'll see less of them in the future.

But will this happen? I doubt it. Microtransactions have kept free to play titles and mobile games afloat and profitable for years now. I never understood the mindset of people who spent large amounts of money on an otherwise free game, but they exist in droves. And I have a hunch that the same sort of people will somehow justify a similar purchase within a $60 game too. Maybe not to the same extent, but enough to make it worth EA's while.

There's really no downside for EA here. Sure, they take a bit of negative press, but so long as the items being sold don't unbalance multiplayer or become required for singleplayer, there's little actual harm being done to the game. This seems like a no-brainer for them because they don't have to develop additional content to sell like with traditional DLC, they're simply offering a faster, easier way to get the items in the game that already exist. As I mentioned in an earlier article, they're essentially selling cheat codes.

Of course there's a tipping point as many longtime Zynga players could tell you. At a certain point in many games, it becomes borderline required to spend real money to play a game with any sort of efficiency, and those who don't are left in the dust by those who do. This many not apply to Dead Space 3, but what about the next time they try this? And the time after that?

There's nothing inherently offensive about this list of microtransactions, other than the idea that a whole bunch of $5 item packs are still considered "micro." This is an experiment EA has every right to conduct and we, as consumers, have every right to reject. But will we? That remains to be seen.